Funds Set To Aid Inland Workers

March 08, 1985

The U.S. Department of Labor has agreed to provide $1 million to assist Illinois and Indiana workers who were laid off in cutbacks at Inland Steel Co.`s East Chicago plant, state officials said Thursday in Springfield. The $1 million in federal funding will be combined with $200,000 from Inland Steel to help pay for programs to teach workers ways to find new jobs and to give them classroom and on-the-job training to learn new job skills. The program will be administered by Indiana officials, because 90 percent of the 1,600 employees eligible for the program are Indiana residents, officials said. Inland announced a cost-cutting program in October aimed at reducing expenses by 20 percent over three years. Earlier this year, Inland said it planned to cut its salaried employees by 700 in 1985.